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Hastert meets the press -- again

From NBC's Mark Murray, Huma Zaidi, and Mike ViqueiraFor the second time in two weeks, Speaker Denny Hastert addressed the Foley scandal in a press conference. Asked about reports that a former page in 2000 reached out to retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe -- the only openly gay Republican in Congress -- about Foley's behavior, Hastert replied: "All I know is that congressman Kolbe was on the page board... If it was something of a nature that should have been brought forward, then he should have done that."

Hastert maintained that while the situation could have been handled better, he does not feel that he or anyone in his office did anything wrong. "I understood what my staff told me... and I think from that response they've handled it as well as they should. However, you know, in 20-20 hindsight, probably you could do everything a little bit better," he said. "I didn't think anybody at anytime in my office did anything wrong. I found out about these revelations last Friday. That was the first information that I had about it," he added. Per Hastert, investigations in the Foley matter are ongoing and that if anyone is found to have withheld information about it, that person needs to resign.

Meanwhile, Kolbe just released a statement regarding his recollection of that 2000 complaint, saying that a former page contacted his office to say he received emails from Foley that made him uncomfortable, but that were not believed to be sexually explicit. "It was my recommendation that this complaint be passed along to Rep. Foley's office and the clerk who supervised the page program. This was done promptly. I did not have a personal conversation with Mr. Foley about the matter. I assume e-mail contact ceased since the former page never raised the issue again with my office. I believed then, and believe now, that this was the appropriate way to handle this incident given the information I had and the fact that the young man was no longer a page and not subject to the jurisdiction of the program."